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WEST SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP)- Just over the past two weeks there have been at least five car accidents involving pedestrians in western Massachusetts, two of those crashes were deadly.

An elderly woman died after being hit by a car near where she worked as a crossing guard at Elm and Garden Streets Monday morning. Jane Loftus, of West Springfield said, “Good people doing good work and it’s just a shame.”

The crossing guard used to help students cross back and forth over Elm Street to Coburn Elementary School. 22News spoke with Walter Rickus, a corner business owner who used to speak with her regularly. “Everybody drives too fast on this street and it’s a safety issue too because a few weeks ago I was walking to the majestic with my mother and we tried to cross and one lane stops and the other lane kept going.”

Shortly after the accident involving the crossing guard, a second pedestrian was hit by a car on Elm Street, just a few hundred feet away in front of the post office. Their condition was not released by police.

Mayor Edward Sullivan told 22News over the past decade the city has removed some crosswalks to limit the areas where people cross, installed bump outs on curves and blocked off parking to improve line of sight.

“Well obviously more has to be done it is a congested area we’ll look at a couple different options maybe even reducing the two lane flow of traffic down in that corridor down to one lane to allow a little more space for both the cars and pedestrians,” Mayor Sullivan said.

The Mayor said his office will work with the town council to make more improvements.